


The Proposal

by 99N



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (pls forgive me i do not know how to tag), F/M, FangirlOfManyThings, Hurt/Comfort, I tried to minimize the hurt, Politicians being incompetent, Sokka being a good wife, Toph is a beast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:41:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28065645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/99N/pseuds/99N
Summary: After an unusual encounter with a crime boss, Toph brings a proposal to the council only to it to be dismissed and her competence questioned. Sokka is there to comfort her.
Relationships: Toph Beifong/Sokka
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10
Collections: SofA Lite





	The Proposal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FanGirlofManyThings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanGirlofManyThings/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [FanGirlofManyThings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanGirlofManyThings/pseuds/FanGirlofManyThings) in the [sofa2020lite](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/sofa2020lite) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> I'm here for anything soft, hurt/comfort is great but only if it's heavy on the comfort. 
> 
> DNW: NSFW of any kind, unhappy ending

There was a rise in crime, naturally, in Republic City. The population grew faster than the infrastructure could, so benders and non-benders alike resorted to crime to keep their families fed and a roof over their head. While the council squabbled over what shade of orange, blue, green, and red carpet should be rolled out on the steps of City Hall, Toph was charged with “cleaning up the city”. She was at her wits end with the people and it showed.

Somehow this Gang Boss managed to separate her from her elite squad of metalbending police. Penga, Hotun, and the Dark One were all gone, and she was surrounded by a river of unbendable lava. The ceiling of the cavern was too high for even the greatest earthbender in the world to reach. If she tried to expand the area of the platform where she, it would become too thin; the magma would melt through.

“Just get it over with!” she dared with beads of sweat forming on her brow.

“Now, Chief… I have no interest in killing you. If I did, we both know I would have done it already. I would like to come to a truce.”

“I don’t make deals with criminals like you!”

“Oh, but you want to! At times… I can see it in your unseeing eyes!” the crime boss yelled from above, his voice echoing over the bubbling lava.

“Tch!” Toph spat into the blazing lake and listened to the saliva sizzle.

“You must realize— that we only do what we have to do to put food on the table for our families. Keep roofs over our heads….”

“I can understand petty theft but don’t try to justify, assault and murder!”

“I’m not trying to justify it. I am a bad man. I know that—but my children are not. They don’t know about this part of my life. They think I am a humble coal miner. Imagine how they would feel if they saw my visage on a police line up in the papers?” The boss man yelled.

“What do I care what they think of you? If you really cared about them, you would have thought of them before killing dozens of coalminers with these rivers of lava? What of their children who don’t have fathers anymore?!”

“They were unimportant bystanders to a bigger conflict. Here’s what I propose. You fix the schools first. Prioritize the children. Give them an education. It is only taking so damn long for the infrastructure of this city to improve because nobody in this spiritforsaken city knows how to improve it.”

“I’m not in charge of education! I’m in charge of law enforcement, you dunderhead! It’s not up to me! It is up to the council!”

“The council, yes. And tell me chief, is your significant other not the Southern Water Tribe representative in the council? Do you not meet with them weekly to give reports on the status of the city? Do you not tell them the stage you’re in in every hostage negotiation? How many arrests you’ve made? Are you not tasked with updating the crime index? Can you not use that opportunity to mention this little thing? If they have half the hearts they claim to possess, they won’t argue if it comes from you. You’ll have children some day and when you do, you’ll not want them to be helpless, I’m sure. You wouldn’t want weak, tiny, useless little beings.”

Toph seethed with rage. How dare he corner her like this. How dare he!

The instant he saw Toph clench her fist in anger, the Gang Boss knew he’d won. He cooled the floor of lava in an instant and shielded his face for the inevitable attack.

He dodged the boulder and fled. “Go back to your Councilman and remember the children!” He yelled as he disappeared into the darkness.

Toph sighed. She couldn’t pursue him in this state. The time she spent baking surrounded by lava had left her too dehydrated. She needed to get back to her squad. Her squad and Sokka.

She collapsed upon emerging from the mountain covered in a sweaty combination of dust, dirt, and pumice shavings.

“Toph!” Sokka yelled, rushing towards her.

“Chief!” Ho Tun called, racing to her with a canteen of water.

“We called for Master Katara and Avatar Aang to come. We were getting worried.”

“You shouldn’t have. The Avatar especially has far more important things to do than dig through some rubble for an incompetent chief of police.” Toph grumbled.

“Oh stop it! You’re worth everything. Don’t disparage yourself!” Katara insisted, bending some of her healing water out of a skein draped over her shoulder.

“What happened down there?” Sokka asked.

“Don’t make her speak until she’s drunk something!” Ho Tun interjected, holding the canteen to his chief’s lips.

“I need to speak with the council!" Toph croaked.

* * *

Three days later, after she'd given her full report on how she got separated from her squad, held hostage, and failed to arrest the crime boss, they asked Toph: "What is your solution to this growing crime rate?"

"And don't say you need more personnel," the Earth Kingdom representative interjected before Toph could speak. "The budget is stretched thin enough as it is with the water and sewage sector struggling to keep afloat the districts that actually pay their taxes."

Sokka, the representative for the Southern Water Tribe leaned forward on his elbows and listened closely.

"A reallocation of a portion of funds from all departments into the education department."

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" the Earth Kingdom representative exclaimed.

"Let me finish, Councilman! The reason that crime is so high is because the population is growing faster than the current infrastructure can support, correct?"

The Fire Nation and Northern Water Tribe reps nodded.

"I think the water and city planning departments are so slow to develop the infrastructure because only a couple dozen people in each department know how to actually do anything. From what I'm told, they seem to be only training one apprentice at a time to replace them and once trained, those apprentices don't even always stay in public sector. It is a waste of time. Maybe instead of those people pouring all of their knowledge and efforts into one person, those who do know how to improve the infrastructure could take a week or a month or whatever and develop a course that could teach a larger number of people how they can do their work in one sitting. More roads can be paved, if we had more than three civil engineers per district and--"

"Motion rejected," the Air Acolyte supposedly representing Aang's interests stated firmly.

"Why?" Toph asked.

"The engineers have no time to spare towards developing courses for the people of this city while whole neighborhoods are without drinking water and sewage to carry away waste and other filthy debris." the Earth Kingdom representative insisted.

"And you have no time to spare thinking about such impossible propositions while crime is still as rampant as it is!" the Northern Water Tribesman added.

Toph curled her hand into a fist. Sokka felt the foundation of city hall tremble slightly in the Chief's anger but still said nothing. She knew this fight wasn’t one she could win in City Hall with just words. Half these councilmen heard 'reallocation of funds' and subconsciously rejected the proposal before it had even been stated.

"Am I insane for listening to that lava guy?" Toph asked that evening, kicking her filthy feet up onto the dinner table, shedding her armor onto the floor around where she sat unceremoniously.

"No." Sokka replied, starting the stove with a lighter. 

"Does it not make sense to invest in the lives of the children? Is it really so hard to teach more than one person how to do what you're doing at one time? I mean--- I taught Penga and Ho Tun and the Dark One EVERYTHING I know about metalbending at the same time. If I drop dead tomorrow, any of them could take up the mantle of being chief and serve this city just fine!--AND they're all teaching classes of some twenty-something young earth benders at the Beifong Academy in the afternoons."

"They're just scared." Sokka explained, dumping a few bricks of ramen noodle into a pot of boiling water and lighting a second burner to soft boil some eggs.

"Why?” Toph demanded to know, exasperated, blowing a tuft of bangs away from her nose. “I get the Earth Kingdom rep being stubborn as the element we bend but the others? What happened to the Water Tribesman being adaptable and  _ going with the flow _ and the Air Acolytes learning to  _ be a leaf _ ? And why didn't you say anything during that entire meeting?"

"You know,” Sokka started, stirring the noodles to break up the brick. “...since we started dating, they assume I will automatically agree with everything you say and do."

"Well..." Toph thought for a moment, "Do you?"

"Pfft! Of course not!"

"EXACTLY!" Toph threw her arms in the air. "Those ancient imbeciles!" she muttered, sliding her foot across the floor, subconsciously cracking the cement wall across from her. “It’s just like in Gaoling. They make me feel like a child sometimes. They think me ignorant… blind… weak… Tell me I shouldn’t worry my little girl mind about anything-- that it is out of my league!"

“Deep breaths, dear,” Sokka reminded his love, bringing her her ramen with a soft boiled egg on top. “You’re not ignorant, you are not blind, and you are not weak. There is nothing wrong with having a ‘girl’s’ mind, whatever that is supposed to mean. You’re strong and capable and caring -- even if that care leaves bruises sometimes…” Sokka added with a smirk. “In all honesty, they probably don’t even realize how their words affect you because you managed to stay so calm and level in the courtroom. They’re so wrapped up in self interest that they probably barely even noticed. If anything, what happened today proves your superiority. You can take the high road. You’re selfless and brave… AND willing to put your life on the line for others daily, while we cowards sit on fancy chairs spewing fancy words at each other.” Sokka gave her a light elbow jab while she ate. She chuckled slightly. 

He took a big loud slurp of his ramen, trying to be as boisterous as he could… Katara always hated when he did that but Toph found it funny. “Haters are gonna hate,” he mumbled with a mouth full. “But who are they to the World’s Greatest Earthbender?” He swallowed and leaned over to her and whispered, “Nothing!” 

Toph smiled. He was right. They were nothing. Sure they approved her paycheck, but she didn’t need that either. She was a Beifong after all! She was a Beifong, a war hero, and the Greatest Earthbender in the World? She could go to the city workers herself and make that proposal! She could pay them for their time without making a dent in her savings and help people by doing more than just sweeping the streets. A mischievous smirk formed across her face. 

“What’s this? A secret plan to go behind the council’s back?” Sokka asked, recognizing that expression. It was the one she used when she told Katara she’d stop scamming scammers. 

“Hey-- from 7PM -8AM, I’m a private citizen. I can do what I want!” Toph reminded him. “F the council! I'll help the people!” 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Winter Holiday(?) Break(?)! I hope you like the story and it is not too heavy at the beginning. I am not used to writing comfort... just a lot of hurt *sweats*... But I love Tokka with all of my existence. I hope it is okay that I made them adults (i don't ship children).


End file.
